Read Online Servant of a Dark God by John Brown - Free Book Online Page A

“The way to the woods will be clear. Be ready to fly.”
    Then she walked to the front door and put her hand on the crossbar. She paused, taking them all in with her gaze. “I will be waiting for you in brightness.”
    She lifted the bar, and in one fluid motion she flung open the door and raced outside. Clouds of smoke billowed in. The roar of the fire above them surged. Out back, Fancy cried with wild panic.
    Luckily, neither Sugar nor Legs were standing anywhere within the line of sight from the doorway, for moments later more than a dozen arrows hissed through the smoke, some sticking into the walls, others glancing off a table or chair. Da had only just gained his feet when two struck him. One glanced off his breastplate, the other hit him in the mail over his thigh. He grunted at the second, but it did not have an armor-piercing head, and the arrow fell away.
    Da stood and raced after Mother, but halted at the door. He coughed at the smoke and squatted to get under it. “Goh,” he said with a look of wonder on his face.
    “Da,” said Sugar and rushed to shut the door. But as she grabbed the door, she saw what Da was looking at.
    Mother had already reached the soldiers. Two men lay on the grass. One was dead. The other screamed out at the wound that had nearly taken his leg.
    She moved like a snake, like the wind. She was graceful and absolutely horrible.
    She swung into another man’s wooden shield and sent it flying. He cried out and stumbled backward, but before he could reach the ground, she smashed in the side of his head.
    Sugar could not believe her eyes. She would not. Such speed and power was unnatural.
    “Purity,” said Da, and Sugar could see the horror and disbelief on his face.
    The great bulk of the men were falling back, some stumbling over one another. In his retreat, one of the bowmen loosed an arrow, but it flew wide of Mother and struck one of his fellows. Another man charged her with a spear, but she swung the maul with blinding speed and cleaved the spear into two.
    The Crab yelled for his men to stand and close ranks.
    Mother was about to put the whole mob on the run, but two men yelled and rushed her from behind, their javelins held high.
    “Mother!” Sugar yelled.
    Mother turned just as they cast them. She dodged one, but the other caught her in the shoulder and knocked her back.
    Da roared.
    He had been in shock, but fury now burned in his eyes.
    Mother removed the spear and defended herself from the sword blows of the man who had thrown it.
    A dozen archers came running round the corner from the back of the house. They began to form a line. Mother would not be able to dodge their arrows.
    The flames thundered overhead.
    “Get to Fancy,” Da commanded, “and ride.”
    Then he rose and stepped out onto the porch and put his helmet upon his head. Someone shouted out a warning, and the mob turned to look.
    Da stood in his dark, shining armor, the fire raging above his head, smoke pouring off the roof.
    The men in the yard froze.
    “You’ve met the mistress,” Da bellowed. “Now face the master!”
    A man dropped his spear, panic shining in his wide eyes.
    Da roared and and charged into the fray.
    “Da!” Sugar called after him.
    He had no weapon, and at first, Sugar thought that he too would fly into the soldiers as Mother had with that awful strength and speed. But Da did not show any sign of dark magic. He charged as a normal man would, an actor playing a role.
    But the soldiers did not see through Da’s bluff, and they began to scatter.
    Just then the Crab yelled out and galloped across Sugar’s view toward her parents, his sword held high and at the ready.
    The house burned like a furnace. The heat began to scorch her lungs with each breath, and she dropped to the floor.
    She watched Da run to one of the dead men and pick up his spear. Then he turned just in time to meet the Crab’s charge. Da yelled and shoved the spear into the neck of the Crab’s mount. The horse